Post by Alan S. Cohen, Vice President, Enterprise SolutionsReading my colleague Joe Burton’s blog a few days on UC”Analysis Paralysis” got me to thinking a little more deeply about how the next wave of the Internet was started by Web 2.0 and Social Networking (the Human Network), but may be completed by how businesses are taking advantage of the changing dynamics of Collaboration and Unified Communications (the Human Network @ Work). If the first wave of the Web Internet was largely defined by commerce and customer support (“œfind it, buy it, help it”), the second wave is more about rich collaboration (“œfind me, work with me”). The entrance of rich media and video into the equation shows how fast people-to-machine transactions are moving to people-to-people-to-contextual/real-time information types of interactions. People are in the center, not computers. And every device, fixed and mobile, is in play.Despite the prognostications you might hear about the unified communications marketplace, it is crystal clear that the user, and all the choices that users make, owns this emerging environment. Unified communications and collaboration is the new platform for businesses and winners in this market must take to heart the words of Winston Churchill:”I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” Monolithic approaches and platforms are destined for the dustbin of Internet history. Read More »

Everybody’s favorite “on the road” paper. The one that you get at your hotel door. The one that you get when you are in a town whose hometown paper’s lead story is about a unusually large squash. The one you grab at an airport when you want to know “what is going on.” The one with the neat graphics on the front page. The one with the “our views”/”opposing views.” Tomorrow, USAToday is 25 years old! Their editor, Ken Paulsen, offers some comments on how it started and what it means. There are, of course, great graphics that tell the 25 year story as well. And, founder Al Neuharth offers his perspective as well.So, Happy Birthday, USAToday! We honor you for your service.

I thought a poem would be appropriate for today. The Seven Ages of Manby William ShakespeareAll the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players,They have their exits and entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justiceIn fair round belly, with good capon lin’d,With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws, and modern instances,And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide,For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,Turning again towards childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Post by Joe Burton, Chief Technology Officer, Unified CommunicationsDon’t take your comparative advantage for granted. Ours is a rapid-paced, dynamic business environment . Whether it’s a small company focused on serving a market niche or a large global corporation, every business has to compete for customers and stay one step ahead of its competitors to maintain a sustainable edge.In this ever-changing global economy, can any business wait around to get outpaced by competitors while they experiment with PC or email-client-based-architecture for unified communications? Can they afford to exclude future prospective customers, employees, or partners who do not use email as their preferred communications medium? Can they afford the 18-24 month wait for a software-client-based call control architecture that will be marginally mature and deployable? Can they really depend on PC”experts”, who are learning on-the-job to implement a business class unified communications solution that meets their communication requirements? Read More »

School days are upon us. For some of you with school age children, “school daze” may be more appropriate. It takes a lot of people to prepare for the school year and with that spirit in mind, our Corporate Communications team recently partnered with Hands on Bay Area and worked with the Ravenswood City School District superintendent to identify a school in Menlo Park, CA to help get it ready for the school year. A team of 60 Cisco volunteers spent over 180 man hours painting interior walls, removing white boards, sanding and painting benches, assembling planter boxes, painting a mural and overall clipping hedges and trees and cleaning, weeding and installing a garden in the courtyard for Belle Haven school. Cisco has been involved with the Costano School in East Palo Alto, CA since our early days (it is across from the original Cisco building) and we were honored and proud to help another school in the area where we were founded. Read More »

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